So i wrote a small short story. Tell me what you guys think.
So I’m sitting in the office working on some financial projections and I realize I need to head to the bathroom. I put down the client files, push off of my desk and make for the bathroom. I exit the office and start down the hall when I notice they are doing some remodeling in the office building. They have a crew of a couple guys and a girl working on some new molding on the ceiling. You know got the normal crew with faded khaki painters pants, white shirt with 300 different shades of tope splattered on it and an old warn out twins hat. The kind of baseball cap that isn’t fitted and doesn’t have the bumps it is simply a solid piece of fabric across the back and a belt buckle like clasp to hold it in place to make for the correct contractor fit. As I walk by I watch them work sanding nailing and painting. One of the men crosses under the A shaped ladder and catches my eye. I feel awkward in my nice clean khaki pants button up collared shirt and sweater vest. I muster up a smile and walk into the bathroom. Now what a man does when he walks into the bath is pick where to go. A man can’t stand right next to another at the urinals and if there is someone in the middle of a three set you want to take the higher urinal. But none of that really mattered today because I needed a stall. There were two in this particular bathroom one normal small stall which was currently occupied. I opened the door to the handicapped stall. The kind of stall that has a large door and handles around the toilet to assist wheel chair patrons a way to monkey their way onto the throne. I close the door behind me and latch it shut. I undo my web belt let my pants fall down to my knees and then sit down. I wished I had been at home because at home I have a nice small rack for magazines for reading when I know I am in for the long haul. While sitting there the first minute goes by and in this time the bathroom empties. Sometimes bathroom real estate is like parking. You are forced to park over a line because both of the people on either side of you are over their lines. So you’re pretty angry at them but you park and go into the store. Only to find out that both of the cars on either side of you have disappeared and left you looking like you park cars like a blindfolded chimpanzee with bananas on the breeze. As you unlock your car you see someone approach a parking spot near you and then back away with a disgusted look on your face because that was the only available room for the next mile. But I’m in the handicapped spot so I wasn’t terribly worried about looking like an ass on this particular occasion. Well to my surprise I hear the door open and the sound of someone coming in huffing and puffing in a hurry. Also you can somehow sense that they are clenching, holding back something nasty. And what surprises me even more is when I see two wheel roll past in the space between the floor and the stall frame. The door on my stall hits against the restraining latch and I flinch a bit. I hear the man sigh. He knocks on the door to my stall.
“Hello?” I respond
“Sir you need to get out so that I can use that stall” Hotwheels says
I pause for a moment and think to myself, “What the hell am I gonna do? I can’t just stop in the middle. Does he seriously think I am going to walk out with my pants around my ankles prairie dogging and into the next stall over?”
I respond with, “Well I sure hope you can hold on a bit because I’m sort of busy.” I let out a small laugh at the comical situation.
“Do you think it is funny that I need to use the special stall because I lost my legs in a car crash?”
Woops wrong way to go. “No sir I do not find that funny.”
“Then get out I have to use the toilet very soon there are no handles in the other stall I cannot get into it either it is too small.”
“Well I am sorry sir but I have already started the process that can’t be interrupted.”
He sighs again and I see his wheels disappear from the space under the door. The next thing I know I hear the frame of his wheel chair creak under his weight and I hear a plop. I see his limp legs crawl past as he army crawls like he is on a mission in Nam to the stall next to me. I hear him scramble around in the stall next to mine. He uses his arms to prop himself up off the ground but he can’t get high enough to get on the toilet. He tries to grab onto the toilet paper roll housing. As his legs leave the ground the housing breaks off the stall frame with a loud clang. This whole time I am looking at the wall next to me in amazement at what is happening here. The man lets out a grunt of frustration. He perseveres though and places his hand up behind him on the bowl of the toilet I can see his legs leave the ground and he is getting close and all of a sudden I hear a splash and another grunt. I can only imagine on of his hands slipped off the side of the bowl and into the water below. However the work has paid off as he is now sitting atop the throne. He slides his pants off. A moment passes as I take this entire situation in. I cannot believe this all has happened. Then I realize I am done and most likely have been for a while. I had been distracted by the feat of the man in the wheel chair. I finish wiping and I hear the toilet next to me flush. I think to myself “I can’t face this man after what I have done to him.” So I sit there finished and watch as this poor man repeats the process again. He plops down onto the cold tile floor and arm over arm crawls back to his wheel chair. He climbs in and wheels over to the sink. The whole bathroom is quiet. You can hear the electronic tick after he places his hands in front of the faucet and before the water come out. The soap dispenser squeaks and the sound of washing hands is all that is heard. The water stops running. More silence, the electric drier whooshes on. Now everyone hates these things. They take forever and do a terrible job. So I’m sitting here finished all the while I am too afraid to go out to see this man. I wait until his hands are dry and I hear the wheelchair leave the bathroom. I get up and put my pants back on and tuck my shirt in. Still in disbelief. I wash my hands and walk out of the bathroom. I see the man in a wheelchair sitting next to the elevator waiting for it to take him upstairs. I can see that his left sleeve is soaking wet and he looks fairly depressed. I slink across the hall and do not look back. I would like to think he didn’t see me but I sort of knocked over a small cardboard display halfway so I’m fairly sure he watched me pick it up and put it back. I didn’t look his direction still in shame of what had happened. When I got to my office I let out a sigh and sat down.
